TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi blasted the western states’ double-standard policies on different developments in the region, saying that while the West supports Bahrain’s dictatorial regime, it equips terrorists with weapons in Syria.

Salehi said on Wednesday that other examples of the western double-standards are their approach to developments in Syria and Bahrain.

“The western governments turn a blind eye to peaceful demonstrations of the people in Bahrain,” he added.

Earlier, a senior Bahraini opposition leader had also lashed out at Washington’s double-standard policy and approach towards developments in the region, specially in Bahrain and Syria.

Speaking to FNA in January, Spokesman of Bahrain’s February 14 Revolution Abdul Raouf al-Shayeb said that the US holds a hostile stance on the Bahraini revolution and has given the Al Khalifa regime the green light for using different tactics and criminal acts to confront people and allowed Saudi Arabia to dispatch its forces to help Manama suppress protesters.

He pointed to the US support for anti-government armed groups in Syria, and added, “Washington is exercising a double-standard attitude towards Arab revolutions, on one hand it condemns the popular revolution in Bahrain and on the other hand it supports the Syrian opposition and supplies arms to them and also asks Saudi Arabia to help the Al Khalifa massacre and suppress the people by dispatching its forces.” Continue reading →

Syria demanded the UN Security Council (UNSC), UN General Secretariat and UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to expose the crimes of the armed groups, condemn them and punish these groups.

The demand came in identical letters sent by the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry to the Head of UNSC, UNSG, UNHRC Chairperson and High Commissioner of Human Rights.

The Syrian foreign ministry stressed in its letters that the armed groups and their supporters are continuing shedding the Syrian blood in contradiction with all human values and at a timing which became known being repeated before sessions held by the UNSC to discuss the situation in Syria.

The Ministry highlighted that the massacre committed by an armed terrorist group in Duma city in Damascus Countryside took place in an area where there is no presence of the Syrian Army or and where the armed terrorist groups are active. Continue reading →

Damascus – The Colonel Khalid Abed al-Rahamn al-Zalem, founder and commander of several armed groups, and several officers announced about their defection from Free Army and cooperation with Syrian authorities to resolve conflict through dialogue. The announcement comes amid a Conference for the Syrian Opposition in Damascus.

The people of Rableh, a village situated between the Lebanese border and the city of Qusayr, in the Province of Homs, are protesting the kidnapping

We are talking about workers and farmers, men, youth and women, who were just a few kilometres from the village, working in the fields for the apple harvest, a major source of livelihood for the local population. Abou Fadel, a Catholic and father of one of the victims, contacted by Fides news agency, said he heard gunfire and blasts, “so we went to see what was happening. We saw lots of vans and pick-ups that brought people away. In the fields there were only boxes with the apple harvest left.”

Abou Fadel reports that “this region has for months been completely under the control of armed gangs who boss around. In the past few weeks we could not take care of the trees in the fields for lack of security. Then, thanks to a deal initiated by the governor of Homs, the situation looked better.”

“I am very worried. My son is among the kidnapped and many young people in our family have disappeared. Why? What do the kidnappers want? We fear for their fate. We are a peaceful village, close to the shrine of the prophet St. Elijah, a place worshiped by Christians and Muslims. We desire only to live in peace with everyone,” the man continues.

The Greek-Catholic Patriarch of Damascus, Gregorios III Laham, was informed of the incident and, Fides wrote having spoken to him, “he begs God to help the innocent and poor.” The Patriarch launches an appeal: “I call on all parties to respect the civil people and save innocent lives.” Some Christian leaders are trying to contact NGOs and international organizations to ask for assistance in this tragic situation.

Syrian Information Minister Omran Zoabi announced that thousands of well-equipped militants entered Syria through its borders, especially through Turkey.

In an interview with Al-Manar TV, Zoabi said Syria “capable of putting the crisis to an end in few hours, but that may result in heavy losses to Syria and its people.” “So, we’re launching qualitative operations against militants,” this minister added.

“There’s nothing called Free Syrian Army but separate armed groups joined altogether with the Western-israeli scheme in Syria,” Zoabi pointed out.

On the other side, Zoabi said the falling of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is ‘imminent’, adding that “his [Erdogan] positions concerning the falling of the Syrian regime worth no reaction from us.” Continue reading →

No doubt the Syrian arena has turned to a field for armed men, particularly “al-Qaeda” and extremists, from all over the globe.

This time, the KavkazCenter website revealed Wednesday that “the son of a late Chechen field commander who waged two post-Soviet wars against Russian forces has been killed while fighting with the rebels in Syria.”

The so-called Russian Islamist website, linked to “al-Qaeda” announced that “Rustam Gelayev, son of former warlord Ruslan Gelayev, entered into a battle with superior forces of the regime in a Syrian district, presumably between August 11 and August 13.”

“During the fighting, he was martyred,” claimed the website, which is regularly used by Russian-based extremist militants to exchange information and has developed a history of providing accurate battlefield reports.
The elder Gelayev was one of the top commanders in Chechnya’s first war that killed tens of thousands between 1994 and 1996.

KavkazCenter said the younger Gelayev was born in 1988 and had lived for a most of his life in Russia before receiving an extremist education in an unnamed Middle East country. Continue reading →

Armed forces restored control over salah Eddin neighborhood in Aleppo and inflicted heavy losses upon the armed terrorist groups there killing and wounding large number of their members, in addition to seizing their weapons.

An official source told SANA reported that tens of terrorists were arrested while others surrendered themselves along with their weapons.

The source added that the armed forces continue pursuing vanquished terrorists in the neighborhood.